So. Here comes another birthday present. The first one for this year. And this one goes to magicoftime who wanted one for Tracy Beaker returns and liked the characters Harry Jones and Tee Taylor. So… here we go. I hope you like it. And magicoftime- Happy birthday!

July the seventeenth was the birthday of little Harry Jones, this year five years old. Harry knew this. Even though there hadn't been anyone congratulating him all day and he had spent the whole day on the floor in the living room of the apartment where he lived with his mum. Since in the morning when Harry had wanted his mum to tell him happy birthday she had pushed him away and Harry had fallen and hurt his leg so badly he hadn't been able to move much from here.

Now it was late evening and if Harry had been taught to count to three he would have been able to count down the hours that was left of his birthday, but Harry couldn't count either to or down from three so he just watched the clock go further and further. And tried to get some sleep only so this long and hard day would come to an end sometime.

Harry turned to the window where he could see the sun go down if he reached up his head a bit. The skies were colored orange and red. And little Harry Jones had seldom seen anything so beautiful in his young life.

Little Harry Jones didn't know much about God, and he had never once prayed in his so far short life. But right there, as the sun went down and left his world dark. He closed his eyes and whispered a short prayer to himself, under his breath so his mum wouldn't wake up from it.

"Dear heavenly father." Harry whispered, he knew that a girl in a book he'd read had said that and the words only made shivers go through his whole body. "Please. If you could even though I'm really bad. Just let my next birthday be better. And let me be with someone who cares about me then. Sincerely. Harry Jones."

Harry laid down with his hand under his head as a pillow, and as the whole living room and flat seemed dark. As a matter of fact that the electricity had been turned off since his mum could never pay for it. He disappeared into a world of the colors of burning sunsets and giraffes.

XxXxX

Three years down the line now eight- year- old Harry Jones was walking around in his home of Elm Tree House care home. It should be that Harry shouldn't have been any happier right now. It was his birthday after all, and in the dumping ground that meant cakes and presents. And since in the dumping ground they all were a big family- a big family meant loads of presents which any boy at eight years old would have jumped high with joy with that but...

…Harry Jones wasn't happy.

It should be that Harry should have been very happy. After all, his best friend and as good as older sister Sapphire Fox was back at the dumping ground if so only for a little while. He had a new friend named Jody Jackson and with Sapphire here no one would be able to bother him or Jeff at all. But….

..Harry Jones still wasn't happy

Harry knew that Mike had had a lot to think about now when Tracy was almost a qualified care worker. She would leave soon, but even though that made him a bit sad that she was leaving. He couldn't actually wait to see who or what was coming next. And this wasn't why Harry Jones wasn't happy.

Harry Jones wasn't happy because it seemed that everybody had forgotten what day it was today.

Everybody except for Jeff

When Harry held Jeff's head to his ear he could hear Jeff singing the happy birthday song and was slightly happier than before. But he still wasn't all happy. Jeff could wish him happy birthday and sing the happy birthday song. But Jeff couldn't make cake or give Harry the second Harry Potter book and Harry needed that Harry Potter book or else he would never know what happened to his namesake after he went back to the Dursley's after his first year. And it had almost seemed that Mike was going to get him that book. But then why did Mike seem like he didn't even know it was Harry's birthday.

Just as Harry thought about that there was a knock on Harry's door and Mike came in. "Hello bud." Mike closed the door after him and then sat down on the bed by Harry with a small box in his hands. "Here," He handed one of the cupcakes that had been in the box to Harry and took one himself. "Happy birthday. Wow, eight years old. It feels like just yesterday it was your first day here and you were so tiny I could have thrown you over the roof with using one finger. Now you're getting so big."

"It seems like everybody except you and Jeff have forgotten it is my birthday today."

Mike just smiled slightly while he took another bite from his cupcake. "No bud. I'm sure they remember it just fine. But they have a bit to do with their own things and such. But if they don't remember it anything before six o'clock at night. Then come to me and I'll fix something with you all. Okay?" Harry nodded and Mike held out his hand and Harry shook it. "Okay, now. I need to fix some paper work in the office. See you later bud."

Harry spent the rest of the day until the early evening in his room and read, or played games on his own or just talking to Jeff and barely even left his room. Towards dinner time he was waiting for Gina to shout so the house shook, but it never happened. And at last when the clock had passed the time when Mike said he'd come in if no one had remembered. Harry laid down on his bed and thought that he could just as well sleep until tomorrow if nobody remembered what day today was anyway.

"HARRY"

Just as Harry closed his eyes he thought he heard someone shouting. And he lifted his head from the pillow and listened closely, hoping that he had heard it right. And there it was again.

"HARRY. COME ON HARRY."

Harry jumped out of his bed with Jeff in a stern grip in his hand. And ran towards his door but stopped in the doorway. What if he had just imagined it?

"HARRY. COME ON. GET TO THE QUIET ROOM."

This time he knew for certain he wasn't imagining it and he ran out in the hallway and sprinted down the stairs, through another hallway and into the quiet room. That wasn't so quiet now when everybody stood in there and raised their hands in the air while shouting.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY."

Harry couldn't help it. Just a minute ago he had been ready to first cry with sorrow and angriness. But now when he saw all of his friends of the dumping ground standing in front of him and the quiet room being filled with banners that read 'Happy birthday Harry' in bright colors and glitter. His eyes filled with tears of joy, and he couldn't keep new ones from coming up as he could just barely see through them that one after one the smiles faded from his friends' faces when they saw he was crying.

"What's the matter Harry?" Sapphire came over to him and kneeled so she could look into his eyes. "Aren't you happy?" Harry nodded and held Jeff by his cheek so he'd catch some of the tears. "Oh, you're crying because you're happy then?" Harry nodded again. "Do you think cake and presents will help towards crying?" Harry nodded again. "Well come on then." Sapphire gave Harry a quick hug and then led him towards the table where there had been put up several cakes. "So… would you like a piece of a giraffe cake made with… I don't know. I think it's banana whatever and Nutella. You like Nutella don't you?" Harry nodded quickly, that was his very favorite food. "Then I think you're going to like my gift." Harry looked curiously to Sapphire taking the plate she reached him with one piece of his cake. "Oh no young man. You will just have to open it."

Harry didn't let that wait for him, while Mike took charge over the cakes and the newest girl Jody came forward and asked for a bit of the candy chocolate cake right by the giraffe one and Harry was anxiously waiting for everyone to get their pieces of cakes so he could get to start opening his presents. The very biggest box of them all he could see was from Sapphire, and he decided to save that one for last before Jody finally got her second piece of cake and then Harry reached for the wrapped present that stood closest to him and read from the tag on the present.

"Happy birthday Harry. From Tee." He read out loud, and to make it last as long as possible. Almost as if he was afraid it would all disappear if he did it too fast and at last he unwrapped a stuffed animal in the form of a giraffe with a hot water bottle in it and Harry gave Tee a bright smile while Tee gave her explanation to the thoughts on this gift.

"I know that it's only the middle of July now. But I know that when the fall and the winter is here you easily get cold. Especially going to bed at night. So I was thinking when you do get cold you could have this to keep you warm." Harry held Jeff's head to his ear and waited for Jeff to finish speaking to tell Tee and the others what he was saying.

"Jeff's the one who gets cold. And he says he likes it and it will keep him warm." Harry smiled brightly and Tee hugged him tightly before Jody handed him a present that he already knew had ten of her favorite chocolate biscuits in, stolen from the kitchen and Harry already knew that he'd get one, while Jody would eat the other nine herself.

The party continued and Harry continued opening one present after the other. He got a huge box of all of his favorite candies from Johnny, water balloons and huge balloons from Tyler. A few jigsaw puzzles from Johnny and a few other big and small things until he unwrapped two- parted bowls from Gina.

"See babes? Now when you eat cereal you can put cereal in one part, and milk in the other. So your cereal won't get all soft and squishy anymore. Yeah?" Harry nodded happily and hugged Gina. And so, when he finally turned to the huge present from Sapphire and slowly pulled away the wrapping paper printed like a giraffe's fur.

When all the paper at last was off Harry found in it a few smaller wrapped presents and he continued with unwrapping them slowly. One after one, not minding about how much Jody and Tyler seemed to want to get out of the room and get to their own things he continued in his own pace and unwrapped all of the presents from Sapphire.

At first he unwrapped a huge (!) bucket of Nutella, equipment to make and blow huge bubbles, a huge box of his favorite jelly beans, and at last a framed painting of a giraffe standing in the sunset in the most beautiful coloring Harry had ever seen.

"So do you like it?" Harry looked up at Sapphire and nodded. "Have you ever seen the sun going down for real?" Harry thought back to that night three years ago in between at the seventeenth of July and the night of his fifth birthday and nodded"There are no clouds or anything tonight… so maybe if Mike will let you stay up…"

"No"

Not even Sapphire's hopeful look up at the mentioned man had helped. For once Mike was making it very clear that he wasn't going to give in on this. But Harry wasn't sad about that. What would he need a real sunset in a dusty and ragged apartment for like those three years ago, when he now had one painted by his favorite person in the whole world right in his hands.

Although, when the clock had reached somewhere close to half past nine PM. Sapphire was going against Mike's rules anyway. And she and Harry sat together in the window in his room and watched the sun going down.

And as the night was turning into yet another morning. Harry- he couldn't have been any happier.

XxXxX

And so here he was yet another time. In the hands of that man who had promised and promised God knows how many times and God knows in how many different ways and then he'd taken Harry home with him. To meet his wife and his daughter Claire and his other foster son Finn, and even though Harry and Finn were great friends as planned. This foster home was just pure hell!

The night before his birthday Harry laid awake and waited. In the kitchen there was a clock that would ring every hour. And he had heard it go off eleven times… It would have to be midnight soon… and then it would be his birthday… right?

So finally Harry could hear the bell. One, two, three. At last he counted it to twelve beats, which would mean that it was Midnight July the seventeenth. And Harry Jones, who wasn't too little anymore. Was officially eleven years old. But so far he wasn't enjoying being eleven anything. Not in the very slightest.

Just a couple of hours ago, he had been lying in his bed watching the sun going down like he did all of those years ago and watched the sunset with nothing else to do. And he had been thinking that he could just as well have been back with his mum in that muddy and dark flat if this was the way he had ended up anyway.

And this time Harry was so certain nothing could get better anyway. He couldn't even find the wish to pray for someone that could help.

Happy birthday Harry Jones

Happy Freaking birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for magicoftime. I hope your birthday was better than Harry's fifth or the starts of his eighth or eleventh.

Random fact

You would never believe how much trouble I had with first coming up with the story. And then coming up with a good title for it. We're lucky magicoftime got her birthday present in time at last haha.